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NEW YORK, Jan. 11 (PTI) — A doctor of Indian origin and her medical practice will pay $1.85 million to settle allegations that they billed the government for medically unnecessary cataract surgeries and diagnostic tests that Diagnostic tests have even caused harm to her patients in some cases.
Aarti Pandya and Aarti D. Pandya, MDPC have agreed to pay approximately $1,850,000 to settle charges that they violated the False Claims Act.
Federal prosecutors allege that Pandya and her medical facility billed the government for unnecessary, incomplete or worthless cataract surgeries and diagnostic tests, as well as office visits that did not provide the level of service claimed.
“Physicians who perform procedures and tests when there is no legitimate medical need place profit above patients and expose those patients to unnecessary risk,” U.S. Attorney Ryan Buchanan said in a statement Monday.
The settlement resolves allegations that Pandya knowingly submitted false claims to federal health care programs for medically unnecessary cataract removals and other procedures between Jan. 1, 2011, and Dec. 31, 2016, authorities said.
The government alleges that Pandya performed these procedures on patients who did not meet accepted standards of medical practice and, in some cases, caused harm to her patients.
In addition, the government accused Pandya of falsely diagnosing patients with glaucoma to justify billing Medicare, the government health insurance program, for unnecessary diagnostic tests and treatments.
Many of the diagnostic tests that Pandya ordered were not performed correctly, were performed on damaged machines, or were not accounted for in the medical records as required by Medicare.
The $1.85 million settlement resolves allegations in a lawsuit brought by former Pandya Practice Group employee Laura Dildine in the Northern District of Georgia under the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act (FCA).
The FCA authorized a private group to represent the U.S. in litigation over false claims and share in the recovery.
Keri Farley, special agent in charge of the FBI in Atlanta, said the settlement should serve as a reminder that authorities will not tolerate health care providers participating in schemes to defraud the industry and put innocent patients at risk.
“We must reassure patients and taxpayers that health care is determined by clinical need, not fiscal greed,” Farley said.
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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